At the Café Concerto we pick-up
what we left off when we went back, Tom,
last winter to our other lives. Texts dried up
and when you didn’t reply
or alleged your battery was flat
I sulked through half of Lent.
The fact is that you have lost some weight, Tom,
relaxed, begun a beard. I talk too much.
It’s been too long. I can see that.
The waiter gives us two more minutes to decide
and, even now, we are wasting time.

Michael’s work has been published widely including The Rialto, Lighthouse Journal, Other Poetry, Crannog, South Bank Poetry, Envoi, The North, Brittle Star, New Walk and The Interpreter’s House.

In 2014 he won the Untold London Brazen Valentine Competition with his poem, ‘From Hungerford Bridge, Looking East’. He was placed third in the York Poetry Prize, 2015, with the poem ‘Water Lilies’ and he recently collaborated with the Liverpool poet Maria Isakova Bennett in a project at the Walker Gallery as part of the Light Night Liverpool arts festival.

The pamphlet, Undersong (2014) is available from Eyewear Publishing. Michael is currently working towards a first collection.